Popverse's top stories

• Netflix's Stranger Things: Tales from '85 announcement sure seems to be teasing the return of a dead (?) season 2 character
• Here's how to watch all the New York Comic Con 2025 panels
• Watch Capcom tell NYCC 2025 how they've kept up the fight for over 45 years

30 years before the events of Netflix's Stranger Things, something just as strange happened in Hawkins, Indiana. While the TV  focuses on a group of kids in the '80s dealing with the malicious and accidental tragedies of the adults around them, the current stage prequel Stranger Things: The First Shadow delves into those adults as children themselves - but not as flashbacks, but as stories unto themselves - including the man who would become the big bad, Vecna.

And while the Stranger Things: The First Shadow play has been performing on Broadway and the West End for two years now, members of the cast feel it may be overlooked as simply a side story when it in fact is setting the stage for this fall's Stranger Things series finale.

“Our show is setting up so much for season 5. To appreciate season five, you’re going to have to see our show," says Burke Swanson, who plays a teenage version of David Harbor's Sheriff Hopper in Stranger Things: The First Shadow, during a panel recently at New York Comic Con 2025.

Stranger Things: The First Shadow tells the story of a young Henry Creel, who will one day become Vecna. Tormented by powers he can’t control and an impulse to hurt people, Henry shows up with his family in Hawkins, Indiana at the start of the play, and is immediately befriended by Patty Newby, the adopted sister of Bob Newby (Sean Astin from the TV show), an all-new character for the Stranger Things universe. Many other familiar characters appear, most especially teenage versions of Bob, Hopper, and Joyce, who together investigate horrifying pet deaths that begin cropping up in town, and a young Dr. Brenner, who comes to town looking for Henry.

"I don’t think people realize how much lore and world-building is being subtly placed, even in the imagery," says Swanson. "Our show may feel like it ends in one way, but it could very well be setting up something completely different."

Sounds like someone who's been told not to spoil Stranger Things season 5.

As we all collectively wait for Stranger Things season 5, here's the keys to getting ready:

• How to watch Stranger Things in chronological or release order
• Getting to know the Stranger Things season 5 cast
• There needs to be more death in Stranger Things, says co-star Gaten Matarazzo
• The Stranger Things time jump between season 4 and 5 has been confirmed by Netflix - and it raises some serious questions
• "They land the plane," David Harbour describes the Stranger Things finale, which he calls its "best episode"